The computer and the terms related with the computers are in no sense less than a friend, a companion to the mankind. Since the invention of this mechanical device life has taken a new shape and a new way to live are opening for its inventors. Therefore for a person who does not know the computers and the other important parts of it, moving fast in life is not as good as others. Modem, which is perhaps best known to all is an important part of the computers without which a computer can run but will not be that good as with it.



Let us first try to know what a modem is and what are the functions that it performs? To say in very few and simple words, it is a device which produces signals. Without going further to the technical words it can be said as a producer of signals and these signals are good to be transmitted easily. These signals are then decoded to the original digital data. Thus we can see that it is mainly the modem that helps in the creation of the digital data or the signals. Now that the main function of the modem is clear to all, it can be explained in technical words too in which we can say that the modem transforms the signals of the analog and thus encodes the information into digital signals.

So that was the main function of the modem. After that our next approach will be to know what purpose the modem serves? The use of the modem is a must in the internet. For everyday use these modems namely, the cable modems or the ADSL modems are used in the internet. Other than the internet the other important places where the modem is used are the telecommunications. A kind radio modem is used in the telecommunication which transmits the repeated data over a high data rate. In this respect, the 56K modem is the best example which can transform the data up to a level of 56,000 bits per second.

With the passage of time numerous types of modems are being introduced to the computer world with higher speeds and higher capacities. A V.22bis 2400-bit/s was a kind of modem that was introduced in the US and a slightly different but to a much extent similar modem was introduced in Europe. But later on certain other new creations exceeded all these previous types of modem which was highly powerful and capable of performing a lot many things. Later on modems having capacity of receiving at very high speed, and sending signal in very low speed were invented. These modems are used for special purposes. These types of modems are useful for being used in the one sided purposes which was used in the French Minitel system.

Thus we have come to know about a variety of modems and their several functions in this article. This will further be very helpful while operating and knowing some more about the computer related parts.